Restless sleep may be an early sign of Parkinson’s, dementia

If you thrash about in your sleep it could be an early warning sign of Parkinson’s and dementia, experts have warned. People who sleep talk, twitch, jerk, shout, scream, hit and punch in their sleep could have a disorder that’s linked to the brain diseases, they said. And the cause is inflammation that’s responsible for a lack of dopamine – a chemical that sends messages – in the brain. People suffering rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, or RBD for short, are at higher risk of the debilitating conditions as they get older, scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark discovered. Morten Gersel Stokholm, one of the researchers, said: “These patients have an inflammation of the brain in the area where the dopamine-pro ...